


And I Feel Fine

by Masu_Trout



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (And Emotionally Incompetent Hurt/Comfort), Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Last Stand, Mettaton NEO, Mid-Canon, Missing Scene, No Mercy Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 11:02:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5245898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/pseuds/Masu_Trout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fallen human is human is fast approaching The Core, and Mettaton is ready to finally take the stage. </p>
<p>Now, if only Alphys would stop <i>worrying</i> so much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Feel Fine

_Our brave hero, Mettaton, has fallen to pieces. His dreams dashed, his hopes scattered to the wind, he has only one chance left. But can he remake himself in time—_

“Mettaton,” Alphys said tiredly, “please. Now's not the time.”

“Just setting the mood, darling.” Mettaton smiled, or did his best to; his face wasn't working quite right. He couldn't seem to move the right half of his mouth. “The silence has been getting so dreary.”

“I need to concentrate right now.” She peered down at her blueprints once more, checking a piece of his hand against the paper schematics.

They both knew she was lying. Normally, Alphys would never start working without first putting on some obnoxiously cheery human-made music she'd scavenged out of the dump. (Mettaton had offered more than once to send her some of his own songs—free of charge, even!—but she'd always refused. There was no accounting for taste, he supposed.) 

He glanced around at the barren lab. Her posters had been ripped violently from the walls, leaving nothing but shreds of paper, and her favorite little doll was in five pieces on the floor. Alphys never had much of a talent for interior design, but this was simply depressing.

She nodded at the blueprints, seemingly satisfied, and carefully picked up his arm. Mettaton watched curiously as she slipped her hands into the grooves of his wrist joint, reconnecting wires and hooking cables together.

Watching the doctor work was always such a pleasure. (And it was _especially_ pleasurable when the subject was someone as fascinating as himself.) Her normal anxiety faded away, leaving behind a person he barely recognized: her hands would still, her posture would straighten, and her eyes would take on a focused gleam as she took him apart or pieced him together. 

It was incredibly flattering. He was used to being adored, of course—the spotlight was his one love, his only home—but no other audience member had ever focused on him quite so _intently_ as her. 

Today, though, her focus was off. He could feel her hands shake as she pieced him together; the motions sent tiny vibrations throughout his delicate joints. “Careful, doctor. You're making me quiver.”

“Oh!” Alphys jumped backwards, nearly knocking his wrist apart once more as she pulled her hands away. “I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I'm just....”

“It's _fine_ ,” he drawled. “Honestly, you're so on edge.” The feeling had been incredibly uncomfortable—like being shredded from the inside out—but he'd dealt with far worse before. In the world of show business, beauty was pain.

“Sorry,” she said again, this time quieter. Tears welled up behind her glasses before she blinked them away. 

“Don't apologize so much. It's annoying.” 

“Sorr—ah, um.”Alphys blushed a deep orange as she snapped her mouth shut. “I'll just... keep on going, then.”

“Wonderful.” Mettaton settled back against the operating table as she slipped her hands inside him once more. She still slumped near-bonelessly over the table as she worked, and every so often she'd pause to rub at her eyes, but at least her hands were steadier now. He let the rhythm of her breathing and the hum of his own body wash over him as he waited for her to finish.

“There,” Alphys said finally. The ringing echo of metal-on-metal sounded through the lab as she pushed a piece into place.“Try that out.”

“ _Ah_.” A spark of energy, bright and wonderful and so very alive, flickered through him as his hand came back online. No matter how many times it happened, Mettaton would never get sick of that feeling. 

He tried to flex his fingers and found that he couldn't; his palm had gone completely rigid. The shape of it was strange, too: much bulkier than he remembered. It felt like he was carrying a barbell on his arm.

Mettaton looked down. “Oh, _doctor_. A cannon? You shouldn't have.” 

She flushed, obviously pleased. “I didn't get much of a chance to test it, so you'll have to work with it some yourself. And, um, please tell me if anything goes wrong, I'll make sure to note down any-”

Mettaton cleared his throat loudly, cutting off her babble. “Does it shoot lasers? Please tell me it shoots lasers.”

Alphys scowled. “Of course it does! What sort of hack scientist would build a cannon that can't even shoot lasers?”

“Amazing,” he breathed. “I have to test it.”

“Wha-?” Alphys squawked as he swung himself around to the side of the table. “No! Absolutely not! I haven't even put your _legs_ back on yet, Mettaton, you can't even walk-”

“Then carry me.” He struck the best pose he could manage. It wasn't quite up to his usual standards, but perfectly decent considering he was missing half his body.

“ _You weigh nine hundred pounds_.”

Honestly. It was like he had to do everything around here. “Aren't you a scientist? Show some creativity.” Mettaton shrugged and gave her a lopsided smile. “I believe in you, Alphys.” 

“Absolutely not,” she said firmly. “What if, um... what if one of your fans sees you? What would they think?”

“Oh!” Of course, how ridiculous of him. Alphys was one thing—she was used to seeing him at his worst—but he couldn't crush the dreams of his wide-eyed, innocent adorers by appearing before them looking anything less than perfect. With just how crowded the lab was growing these days, there was no guarantee he'd be able to avoid everyone. “You're absolutely right, sweetheart. Thank you for reminding me.”

Alphys let out a deep breath. “Happy to help. Now, _please_ let me finish up.” She sounded exhausted, but in the way she normally did after spending more than an hour with him. It was only a small step up from the bone-tired weariness that had been lingering in her every word for days, but it was a step up nonetheless. 

The legs were always a delicate job; there was a reason his normal form used wheels instead. 'Absolutely no talking' was the rule of the lab once she started in on them, and Mettaton would never dream of breaking it. 

(At least, not anymore; he'd started taking the rule a lot more seriously ever since Alphys had somehow managed to screw his kneecaps on _backwards_. Part of him still refused to believe it could have been an accident.)

It surprised him, then, when Alphys looked up in the middle of soldering his inner thigh.“Mettaton?”

“Yes?” he asked, a little cautiously. 

“J-just so you know, I didn't get a chance to order the alloy I wanted since production in The Core has completely shut down, and I've only stress-tested your new joints up to four hundred KSI. Oh, and the new eye should be able to see on the infrared and ultraviolet spectrums, but, well, who knows, really, because the scanner in there can be kind of finicky...”

“Please, darling,” he sighed, “if you must lecture me about my body, at least do it _after_ you finish.”

Alphys flinched, and Mettaton felt a pang of guilt run through him. She was under an awful lot of stress herself these days; it was no wonder she was getting a bit frayed. He opened his mouth to—well, not apologize, probably, he wasn't particularly good at apologizing, but he could at least gracefully change the subject—except Alphys spoke before he could.

“You're right.” Her breath caught, and she quickly rubbed at her eyes. “I'll focus, I promise.”

Mettaton stared her down, unblinking, statue-still in the way only a robot could manage. “Is there something you want to say? I've been told I'm a very good listener.”

She snorted. “You don't actually listen. You just turn your hearing off and let people talk at you.”

“Absolutely true!” It was a basic survival skill in his line of work; Mettaton shuddered to remember some of the absolute dullards he'd been forced to invite to his talk show. “But I'd listen to you, Alphys.”

She was silent for a long moment, staring at the floor. Finally, she lifted her head just enough to catch his eyes. “I guess what I'm trying to say is... be careful, okay? Make sure you come back.”

Ah. So that was what this was about. He reached out an arm, realized too late it was his cannon-enhanced one, and very clumsily patted her on the shoulder. It would probably leave a bruise, but she didn't seem to care all that much.

“Alphys,” he said with all the gravitas he could muster. “ _listen to me_. Compared to my expertise and your handiwork, that human is nothing at all.” Mindless rage was no substitute for style, after all. Even the most determined little murderer would have to run out of steam eventually.

“But— Undyne—”

“Undyne sacrificed herself for us. We'll repay her loss.” 

It was thanks to her that he knew the human's weaknesses; he'd studied the tape of her battle again and again and again until every stroke or parry had been burned into his circuits.

(The human would pay for that as well. He hadn't known Undyne all that well—to him, she'd never been much more than a rather obnoxious ex-neighbor—but she hadn't deserved _that_. No one could be deserving of what happened to her. He wished he could forget what he'd seen on the video, but he needed the memories. They were what would lead him to victory.)

“Y...yeah. You're right.” Alphys nodded, her face set into a grim line. “Okay. I won't let Undyne's sacrifice go to waste. We're going to end this.” 

Her voice still shook, but at least she sounded more sure of herself. A fierce sort of willpower, anger and sorrow and resolve all mixing together, burned in her eyes.

“That's the spirit!” Mettaton said. He leaned back and let Alphys bring the soldering iron back against his metal skin. 

Mettaton was ready to see the spotlight once more. Soon, it would be his turn to face the human in battle.

_Time_ , he thought, _for the curtain to close_.

**Author's Note:**

> No Mercy is the saddest thing I have seen in a long, long time, but I also really love the depth it gives all the game's characters. They're all so brave.
> 
> (Also, concrit/advice on my Alphys or Mettaton characterization is always welcome.)


End file.
